A New View of Consciousness and Reality :Multiple Sources - Same Knowledge : The Body is a Shell

As said before, consciousness is light that uses the brain as an interface to experience physical life. But after we die, this light disconnects from the interface of the brain and is freed from the body. Here is one NDEer's account of what happened when he died:

"After that breath I went black, everything was dark. I don't know how much time had lapsed when I was out of my body. I didn't feel or remember leaving my body but it was like I was just there, I was standing over my body with my spirit/soul feet and ankles in my dead body's head, I was looking down at myself but didn't remember being hurt, I had no idea I was dead or injured. I was now a translucent shadow with hands, feet, a whole body but it was made of energy, power, and strength. I looked at my right arm and made a fist. I looked at my left arm and made a fist. I felt so strong and powerful. I was energy." 57

His body of light/energy is no longer a part of the physical body. It is now free to move about without any restrictions. Here is one more account of an OBE during a NDE:

"I went from lying on the gurney to floating in the air above the doctors. I watched as they pulled out my intestines, carefully laying them to the side of my body, and then they began racing around (I presume in an attempt to revive me). During this, I began rising, and all at once it seemed as though I knew everything there was to know. It seemed as if all the mysteries of the world were being revealed. I understood science, math, life! Simultaneously, I could see people below me in other rooms; I saw my grandmother and great-aunt crying outside the operating area. I saw other patients being treated in other surgery rooms. I saw people outside the hospital. I saw so much, and I continued to rise."58

In her out of body state, her mind is fully functional as she is ascending upwards toward the Source. At the same time she can observe many events happening below. People in the out-of-body state can still perceive, think, and feel, often in a much greater way than we are accustomed to in human life. This points to the conclusion that the human body is simply a vehicle of consciousness. Consciousness, while in the body, experiences and directs the dense energy of the body and brain. However, that consciousness in no way depends on the body and brain for its existence. This knowledge of the body as a shell is not just found in NDE reports, indeed it can be found in UFO abduction literature, past-life regression literature, reports of spiritual encounters with deceased loved ones, and in reports of people who have induced out of body experiences outside of the context of a near death event.

Past-life regression is a widely used technique that is very valuable in healing emotional or physical pains that don’t respond to conventional therapy. It is a technique that uses hypnosis to tap into people’s subconscious minds where the memories of this life and past lives are held.

Well-known in this regard is the work of psychiatrist Brian Weiss who has written many books on the subject. In his first book on the subject, Many Lives, Many Masters, he describes the many past lives of his client Catherine. Based on his many regressions with Catherine he remarks, “her experience of death itself was so uniform, so similar, every time. A conscious part of her would leave the body around the moment of death, floating above and then being drawn to a wonderful, energizing light.”59

Sound familiar? This is practically identical to the reports from Near-Death Experiencers. Psychologist Michael Newton, author of the books Journey of Souls and Destiny of Souls, also describes how patients who are hypnotically regressed to a past life death experience will leave their body and float above it. His accounts concur that the out-of-body experience is followed by a pulling towards a great Light. One of his clients reliving a death experience reports:

“Oh, my god! I’m not really dead—am I? I mean, my body is dead—I can see it below me—but I’m floating … I can look down and see my body lying flat in the hospital bed. Everyone around me thinks I’m dead, but I’m not. I want to shout, hey, I’m not really dead! This is so incredible … the nurses are pulling a sheet over my head … people I know are crying. I’m supposed to be dead, but I’m still alive! It’s strange, because my body is absolutely dead while I’m moving around it from above. I’m alive!”60

Another patient of his who was killed in a past life from an arrow to the throat describes being “ejected out the top of my head . . . it’s as if I shed my skin … peeling a banana. I just lose my body in one swoosh!” She describes the energy coming out of her head as “Like a … pinpoint of light … radiating.” She describes herself as weightless and her energy appears as a transparent white. She too describes being pulled into a “bright whiteness”.61

We see from these accounts that whether it’s an OBE reported after a Near-Death Experience or one reported by someone reliving their death under hypnosis, the reports match up identically. They show that consciousness can get by just fine without a body. The body is simply the suit of armour that consciousness wears to battle through the world of physical reality. After the battle of life is over, consciousness drops the heavy armour, freeing itself to return to the peace and comfort of Home in the Source.

Now we will look at examples compiled by Ufologist Raymond Fowler of OBEs that occur during the initial stages of what is known as an alien abduction. As mentioned before, Fowler made a detailed study of Betty and Bob Luca's abductions, the details of which were uncovered via hypnotic regression. In his book, The Watchers, Fowler writes about a shared abduction that the two had together. The details uncovered about this incident under hypnosis show clear evidence that the abduction was not a physical one, but one in which they were taken out of their bodies and brought aboard the UFO in a non-physical state. Here is Betty's account of what happened:

"Bob and I were upstairs in our bedroom. I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth and he was over by the bed, either putting on his socks or taking them off. He was down on the floor kneeling. And there came a loud, [pause] dull whirring sound over the rooftop over the bedroom. Very, very loud. And I turned to look at Bob and he glanced up at me and suddenly, [pause] he came out of his body so that there were two of him! And he rushed toward me and toward the bathroom and stopped abruptly at the door." 62

Later, she describes "I see myselfcoming out of myself too! And I'm reaching out to Bob. I'm holding on[to] him tightly.” 63 As she is taken up in her OBE state she describes that her whole body becomes light and then she enters a room where there are a number of other human forms composed of light. 64

Interestingly, the whirring sound experienced by Betty before her abduction is a common occurrence for out-of-body explorers. Out-of-body explorer William Buhlman, in his book The Secret of the Soul, describes many out-of-body experiences that he has collected from ordinary people all over the world. Often energy sensations of some sort precede the OBE. One woman from Rochester, New York reported that: "I would feel a whirring sensation in my head. Next I would see my body and the bed from above.”65 Another respondent reports that: "I would hear a buzzing noise--this is the only way I can describe it. Then it felt like an electrical line with electricity running up and down my body. I could feel myself lifting out ...”66

Now, compare the last OBE report to this abduction report which is included in John Mack's book Passport to the Cosmos: "She was awakened by a humming sound that seemed to surround the house, and a flash of bright blue light [...] she could not move, and her whole body began to vibrate. She recalled seeing two small thin beings with huge heads, large eyes, and long arms and legs, one of whom was holding a stick or rod that he pressed on the back of her ear. "They're very skinny," she remembered, and"they look like they're made of light. But then underneath there's some physicalness to them like bones. They're not bones though." Then the light seemed to surround her. One of the beings made strong eye contact with her ("his eyes are on my eyes") and this seemed somehow to get her up out of the bed." 67

She then reports floating through her glass window and high over the trees outside of her house. This high level of energy and associated whirring noise, whether it occurs seemingly spontaneously, as in OBE experiences, or is facilitated by an intelligent being, seems to play a key role in separating one's consciousness from the body.

All of these reports suggest that consciousness can be released from the physical body like the shedding of armour or peeling a banana. The body is an outfit that we inhabit, but it is only one vehicle of conscious expression. In the words of out-of-body explorer and researcher William Buhlman:

"We possess and function with multiple energy bodies. Each energy body functions as a vehicle of soul in the various dimensions of the universe. Each subtle energy body acts as an essential transformer and conduit of consciousness. The high frequency energy of soul is progressively stepped down through the various energy bodies so that soul can interact in the dense outer world of matter." 68

The vibratory and electrical sensations reported just before OBEs is the transitioning of consciousness from a lower energy body (the physical) to a higher frequency body of light.

To conclude, the physical body/brain is a conduit of consciousness, allowing consciousness to express itself and experience in physical form. However, this body is only a shell or container of consciousness. Consciousness in no way depends on this body to function. Consciousness is released from the body after death and also may be released while still alive.